"he holiday season is upon us and 2012 has been a great year. However we’re already hard at work on the line up for 2013 and it promises to be our best year ever!

Our offices are now shut and will not reopen until the 4th of January. Over the holiday period only a skeleton staff is covering the tech support help desk and forums. They’ll do all they can to get you answers as quickly as possible but please expect slower response times over the holiday period and they are limited in what they can do until the full team returns.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us this year and we look forward to delivering you some great treats for next year!

Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Matrix Games Team "

I think we wont see the patch before Xmas..I had a feeling we wouldn't..unless someone pulls some magic out of the bag..

It's worth mentioning, I guess, that our frustration isn't to do with just not getting something 'for xmas'. It's because this is the holiday period, when we would have time to really play and test the thing.

Matrix are very small, I suppose, and they clearly had other priorities for the run up to the holidays (as we've seen on the home page). I find it hard to believe that there might be sound commercial sense in putting 'Distant Worlds: Return of the Shakturi' (whatever that is) ahead of Command Ops in the queue, but I guess that's the reality. I guess that game generates more of the bottom line. As everyone always points out, Command Ops is a niche within a niche. And Matrix can't help that they had staff off with flu and such like (this is what Eric said). Just one of those things. We shouldn't be hard on them, I think. I'm sure they tried. I think, however, that they shouldn't expect anything but this kind of reaction (and a loss of goodwill, which converts to the bottom line, eventually) if they don't put it out, when it was so expected AND they post no excuse or explanation whatsoever. Doesn't take long to post something apologising and explaining.

If they'd bothered to explain, for example, I wouldn't have to waste my F***ing time checking here to see if they put it out!!!!

Blaming this debacle on Matrix would be plain wrong, giving they had only a few days to release the installer. The developer took more than 8 months to fix this bug. They are the culprit, leaving us with an unplayable game for so long.

I don't blame them, as I said. But it would have been polite to post an explanation. I don't blame Panther either, actually. Many people play the game (me included) with the 'bugs'. They're not quite bugs. The nature of the AI project means this game will always be developing. You just have to think of what they're trying to do with the AI to realise that. This patch will get to us and there will - I have no doubt whatsoever - be whole batch of new 'bugs' to fix, because you cannot anticipate each and every variable. it's not only huge, what they're trying to do - it's as limitless as human behaviour. It has to be an incremental thing. I would, however, put in a plea for more 'hotfixes' to serious issues. I do think the halting issue - which has bothered many people more than other issues - for example, might have been patched with a hotfix, maybe. But then again, some people don't seem to have been bothered by even that (Lieste, for example).

The radio silence - from both Panther and Matrix - is quite unusual. Normally Dave, at least, would have had something to say. I guess it really must be christmas holidays.....

Floyd have you seen the amount of work in the patch? Also this is an uber complicated piece of programming..far more than 99% of wargames..so any changes have a knock on effect..blaming Arjuna is wrong.

Pheonix it was very unlikely a hotfix is possible with CO due to how complicated the code is..

Yes, i've read the list. Strange the "halting issue" wasn't discovered by the developer before the release of HTTR, as a lot of code was in need of an overhaul, too (formation, reaction, combat, attack and on call support).

Really bad for my taste is the not all formations got the rework so the patch could get out before x-mas, now that we won't see it all this was for nothing, the formations could have gotten all reworked to be on the same level and we could really compare them after x-mas. Now I guess all we get is the same patch but a lot latter in the new year, with the rest of the formations reworked only maybe for the next patch/cota release or even later with a complete new release. I hope Arunja simply finished the work he started and throws out another patch after this one, now that no one can test it over holiday there is no reason to stop halfway thru.

Not at all, Heyhell. But imho it's a bit frustrating to play right now - not impossible. But I'll let someone official say more. We're all a bit pissed off here that no patch and no explanation, and no one from either Panther or Matrix is bothering to look at the forum right now. It's Christmas....

Why good games are always the last in the file? Narrow minded executives, that´s all.

I just bought the game and am trying to learn it. Should I stop and wait for the patch?

The game is playable but the halting issue can ruin your day as it could spoil your plans. I havent touched CO for a couple of months now because of the halting issue but was getting back one week ago because I read of the patch. Yada Yada Yada, its now again on the shelf as the patch wont come out for the next weeks.

Well it's only the echelon left and right I think...also it wasn't something I really noticed until Dave mentioned it wasn't working properly. Though as the patch didn't hit before Xmas I too would have rather dave hold off until it was finished..but then there are many here crying out for the patch due to the halting bug..

quote:

ORIGINAL: BigDuke66

Really bad for my taste is the not all formations got the rework so the patch could get out before x-mas, now that we won't see it all this was for nothing, the formations could have gotten all reworked to be on the same level and we could really compare them after x-mas. Now I guess all we get is the same patch but a lot latter in the new year, with the rest of the formations reworked only maybe for the next patch/cota release or even later with a complete new release. I hope Arunja simply finished the work he started and throws out another patch after this one, now that no one can test it over holiday there is no reason to stop halfway thru.

I guess this week would have been enough for whatever formation was still left to do(he wasn't really precises about what he did and not did, neither is the changelog)to do that, and after that a simple public beta upload on the members club so MG doesn't even have to bother about doing an installer and holiday beta phase would have been possible. It's really a bit strange to see WitP throwing out beta after beta openly on the forum and we have to wait for an installer, for what just enter our serial?

Well, it' disappointing and frustrating I know, but I think Panther has done the best that they can to to get the patch ready. And I don't think it's fair to blame Matrix, there is only so much that can be done. This time of year has to be very hard on all of the Matrix staff. there are really only so many things that can get done, and they all have their dedicated following waiting for them.

For those that just bought the game, I think the time could probably be well spent learning the mechanics. That's my plan anyway. I'm also hoping to spend some time with CoH, which was in same position of waiting for a patch.

I hope everyone at Panther and Matrix take at least some time to enjoy their Christmas Holidays.

The same old issue has always pissed me off; Patches for Panther games (everything about Panther games...) always take an age to appear. If it was just another game, I wouldn't give a stuff. Fact is, these games make up some of my 'Greatest Games of All Time', so when I have to wait on their release, or fixes to be sent down the pipeline....very frustrating.

So then I go and buy another game...play it...get bored...and check in AGAIN to see if the bloody patch is out...

I thought it wouldn't be proper if this patch had come out when they said it would...things are back to normal now...ahhh

There is absolutely no truth to the idea that we delay patches for this game deliberately or that they take longer than those for other games. That may be the perception for some, but it's not true. To the best of my recollection, past update release timing has come down to additional test/rebuild/test iterations with Dave. In this case we are fully responsible for the delay, but not by design.